Re: 'git commit .' in a subdirectory also commits staged files in other subdirectories

From: Taylor Blau <me@ttaylorr.com>
Date: Oct 21, 2022, 21:48 UTC
Message-ID: <Y1MTtNcUHyv76UEV@nand.local>
In-Reply-To: <3a4dfad5-0f2e-14d8-61f2-779616de1ae0@tsoft.com>

Hi Yuri,

On Fri, Oct 21, 2022 at 12:40:51PM -0700, Yuri wrote:

Show 9 quoted lines

> I had several staged files in various subdirectories of the cloned
> repository tree.
>
> 'git commit .' in one of them attempted to commit all of them, not
> only the files in that subdirectory.
>
> This is a very unreasonable behavior, because while being in any
> subdirectory 'git commit .' should only affect that subdirectory, and
> not files elsewhere.

That isn't right, though I can't reproduce what you describe from your report. Try this script out:

--- >8 --- #!/bin/sh

rm -fr repo git init repo cd repo

mkdir -p dir touch dir/c touch a touch b git add a b dir/c git commit -m "a"

date >>b date >>dir/c

(
  cd dir

  git commit . -m "dir"
)
--- 8< ---

`repo` ends up wtih the contents of dir/c committed, but b is still modified (and its latest changes not part of the most recent commit).

Can you share a reproduction script?

Thanks, Taylor